Essence Stabilized

Analyzing…

Analyzing…

Average Essence Quality: Low

Native Sapient Survival Rate: 28.745333%

Initialization Stage One: Complete

Initialization Stage Two: Commence

Congratulations Surviving Native Sapients,

Your world “Earth” has achieved amazing survival

You are in the top 20% of newly initialized worlds for Survival Rate at the end of Stage One

Reward: 1 Moderate Perk

Stage 2 Initialization

Imported entities increased in complexity

Dungeon spawning engaged

UI functionality improved

Stage 2 Completion Requirement: Essence Quality Moderate

I dropped my book as I processed the information from the newest System prompts. Almost five billion people died in the first week? And that is in the top twenty percent of all worlds in survivability? I was expecting the system initialization to be brutal, but damn.

Stage two? How many fucking stages are there to this whole damned thing? It looks like things will get harder as each stage progresses. Increased complexity of imported entities? What? Does that mean spawned monsters are going to be smarter or something? And actual Dungeons are going to be a thing now. If they are anything like dungeons in books or games, they will be dangerous, deadly, and possibly give big rewards too.

Dungeons and smarter mobs can be dealt with later as we come to them. What is this about a new perk? Turning Rukia into my soul bound companion and giving her the ability to cultivate is probably the only reason I survived for so long, and that was a minor perk. What can a moderate perk do for me?

After thinking about the Moderate Perk, a new and more extensive prompt filled my vision. Instead of just the original three options I received for my Minor Perk, there were ten options. And damned if I didn’t want them all, well except for the Path Reset Crystal. I was happy with my Path choice.

Available Moderate Perk options

You may select any option to gain information before confirming your choice

Archetype Tome

Awaken Bloodline

Enhanced Soulbond Weapon

Path Reset Crystal

Personal Vehicle

Portable Ki Workshop (Enhanced)

Portable Market Access

Rare Soul-Bound Spirit Beast Companion

Settlement Specialization Core

Soul bound Ki Power Armor

Before looked into more detail on my options, I figured it would be a good idea to talk to the others. Make sure we were all on the same page and handling the news well enough.

I looked over and saw Rowan lying on his side. Blood was pouring out of his nose. I jumped up and rushed over while pulling up his information with my Identify skill.

Rowan Jessup

Level 4 mage

Hp: 35/65

Stam: 140/140

Mana: 104/252

Defense: 12

Debuff: Mana Backlash- -50% Mana Regeneration for 30 minutes

I pulled out a cloth from my inventory, sat Rowan up and leaned his head forward to let the blood drain. Despite what conventional wisdom says, never tilt your head back when you have a nose bleed. The blood will either go into your lungs or fill your stomach and make you feel sick.

Whatever he was doing to upgrade his Aeons must have been interrupted by the System Messages and did to him what channeling my Ki through a magic weapon did to me. “Dude you ok?” I asked

Rowan let out a groan and held his hands to his head. “Ugh, my head is splitting.” his voiced sounded nasal and was thick with pain.

Cody rushed up and placed his hand on his brother’s head. A golden glow radiated from the point of contact and Rowan’s bleeding nose slowed and stopped in just a couple seconds. His face eased with the relief from the pain.

I checked his health again and was relieved when I saw his health was mostly back to being full, though the debuff was still in place.

Rowan Jessup

Level 4 mage

Hp: 63/65

Stam: 140/140

Mana: 104/252

Defense: 0

Debuff: Mana Backlash -50% Mana Regeneration for 30 minutes

“Thanks Cody, that healing you can do is fire” Rowan shook his head after a moment. “You didn’t need to flex your power though. I should have just used a potion.”

“My Lay on Hands will recharge once I get some sleep. We only have so many potions bro. you know we don’t know when we might get more. Besides, I wasn’t flexing, I was just worried about you bleeding all over the floor.” Cody let out a chuckle, “That’s how you get ants”

Rowan laughed too. “Don’t let mum know you watched…” Rowan’s eyes fell and the mirth left his voice. With tears leaking form his eyes he said “Mum won’t ever yell at us over the sinful shows anymore, and Da won’t sneak us ice cream when we are grounded anymore.”

With a sudden turn to anger he shouted “THEY DIED LIKE ALMOST EVERYONE ELSE”. Rowan then curled into a ball and wept in earnest. Cody’s eyes were red and tears were streaming down his face as well as he walked over to the corner of the basement and slumped down to the floor, pulled his knees to his chest and cried into his folded arms.

Magnus and I gave each other awkward looks and we both moved to the far side of the room to give the kids some space. I was reminded that the kids’ parents just died yesterday. They had been holding up well, but this really was to be expected. I felt for the kids, they seemed to have good caring parents that supported their kids despite the religion they belonged to.

Once we were settled on the other side of the room, I quietly spoke to Magnus. “Let’s give them some time. Did you get the new system prompts?”

Magnus nodded, “Yeah, I hope they are going to be alright,” he said while looking at the grieving teens. “It really sucks, and having to deal with losing your parents along with everything going on. But yeah I got the prompts. So what are you going to do about your perk?”

“Aside from the Reset Path option, I want them all. Did you get the same options I did?”

We both took a moment to compare notes on available options, it turned out that Magnus had all the options I did except for the settlement specialization core, he instead had a basic Settlement Core option.

With a thoughtful expression on his face, Magnus said “I think I will take the Awaken Bloodline option. In the books I read, the cultivators with a strong bloodline are always more powerful than those without. What do you think John? What are you going to pick?”

I thought for a moment before replying. “It’s a tough choice. If it wasn’t for Rukia I doubt I would have survived.”

“Are you going to advance her? That was one of your options right?”

I shook my head “The option says rare soul-bound spirit beast companion. Hold on, let me see. It says I have an option to get more info before making the actual selection.” I clicked on the option and read to Magnus what it said.

“Rare Soul-Bound Spirit Beast Companion: a rare spirit beast from a powerful bloodline. Choose from a list of available creatures. Chosen creature will appear before you in its juvenile state. After bonding has been completed the creature will rapidly mature to adult. It also says in parentheses that the time required to mature is dependent on Creature Species. So yeah, it’s a new pet not an upgrade.”

“No, you don’t want to do that do you?” Magnus asked.

“It wouldn’t be bad, to have another pet that could be more powerful. I could go down the path of beast taming and be some kind of pet class,” I chuckled. “There are other options that might be good for the long term. You didn’t have this as one of your options, but there is a settlement specialization core that seems to provide bonuses depending on what you specialize in.”

Magnus’s eyes lit up “That sounds pretty dope. You were wanting to set up a farm for your family weren’t you?”

I nodded “Yeah, but it’s taken me a week just to get this far. There is a lot that’s available that could help us now instead of when I eventually use the core and found my own settlement.”

“True then I would go with the Ki workshop or soul bound weapon.” Magnus said.

“Those are pretty good options, there is the portable market place too. Just a sec… hmm. Looks like its functionality is fairly limited. You can only make small purchases and can’t sell your loot to it without an actual settlement. The soul bound weapon seems pretty good. Looks like you can get a new one or even upgrade an existing soul-bound weapon.” I said after looking at the extra info given.

“Really? Cool that could be useful.”

I pulled up the info on the Workshop option. “Here listen to what it says about the workshops. Gain a portable extradimensional workshop for a chosen Crafting Skill. You must possess a Crafting Skill to choose a particular workshop. Each workshop will have its own rechargeable pool of Ki for use during crafting and the shops provide bonuses to the quality of the finished product.”

The workshop reminded me of something from one of my favorite book series. “Its extra dimensional, so it might be like Rugrats portable forge in the Ten Realms. It won’t give me any details unless I actually select it for my perk.”

“Damn! Hell yeah, that is super useful.”

“If I pick that one, and can get decent at making these formation things, I could equip everyone with items that could help us all survive instead of one soul-bound weapon for me.”

“That is true but I am being selfish with mine so I can’t tell you to not be with yours.”

“Ultimately it’s up to each of us what we choose. But I appreciate having a sounding board to bounce ideas off of and talk things through a bit. They are all good options, even the one that lets you start over. You would lose all your progress, but imagine selecting a path that didn’t suit you at all and thinking that you were stuck with it for the rest of your life. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would leap at that option. I seem to have a knack for cultivating so I’m happy with the Path of Ki.”

“Yeah that is the truth and your right I think we both do,” Magnus replied with a smile on his face.

I sat there for a bit contemplating the options available and the extra info from each. While all the options sounded great, there was one that really called to me. Despite the various jobs I’ve had over my life, I’ve always loved crafting. The act of creating something always brought joy to my heart, though I lost sight of that as life happened and I had to adapt to new circumstances. The need for steady income and supporting my family took priority over something as seemingly trivial as a hobby.

“I think I know what I’m going to choose. I’m going to take the workshop and get myself a Ki Forge.” I nodded assertively “If I’m going to make myself into a Ki Smith, I’m going to have to open my Mind Meridian next. Otherwise I won’t be able to easily see the Ki flows I’ll be working with"

“That is awesome I’m not sure which one I’m gonna open next.”

“You will figure it out. If you are going to take the Bloodline ability, let me know how it all turns out.” I said before confirming the selection for the Portable Ki Workshop (Enhanced).

Moderate Perk Selected

Portable Ki Workshop (Enhanced)

Assessing Crafting skills…

Ki Workshop (Enhanced) options available

Complete Portable Ki Smithy

Complete Portable Ki Formation Workshop

I pulled up the information on each of the types of workshops I could choose from.

Complete Portable Ki Smithy (Enhanced)

Ki Pool: 500/500

Recharge rate: 25/hour

Ki Point requirement: -50%

Ki control: +100%

Crafting Bonus: +25% quality + tool bonus

Crafting speed bonus:+50% crafting speed

Material bonus: -25% required materials

Binding bonus: +1

Masterwork Tools (smithing) (+40%)

Well Crafted tools (woodworking) (+20%)

Well Crafted Tools (formation) (+20%)

Well Crafted Tools (leather working) (+20%)

Complete Portable Ki Formation Workshop (Enhanced)

Ki Pool: 500/500

Recharge rate: 25/hour

Ki Point requirement: -50%

Ki control: +100%

Crafting Bonus: +25% quality + tool bonus

Crafting speed bonus:+50% crafting speed

Material bonus: -25% required materials

Binding bonus: +1

Masterwork Tools (Formation) (+40%)

Well Crafted tools (woodworking) (+20%)

Well Crafted Tools (Smithing) (+20%)

Well Crafted Tools (Jeweling) (+20%)

Damn, those were some amazing bonuses I could get from each type. Masterwork quality tools, hell it even included tools for making components that could go into the final product. The smithy got woodworking tools, leather working and formation tools. The formation workshop included Jeweler tools too. I guess that means I could make rings pendants and other kinds of jewelry and put a formation in each of them.

The question is what I want to put my focus on. Making weapons and armor, or making a wider assortment of Ki items. I don’t have any skill with making jewelry, not even before the system came. I should probably stick to what I know. Besides once I find my family and set up the settlement, I could make tools in the forge too. It’s the best option for me.

I confirmed the selection for the Complete Portable Ki Smithy (Enhanced).